Mayor’s Column October 12, 2024
Rohn Bishop, Mayor of Waupun
Hello Waupun,
As you know, our city hall was struck by lightning on July 13, and that lightning strike blew out the electronics of the elevator. We’ve been rigging it to work, but can’t be certain it will be fully functional on Election Day. Because of that uncertainty, we have moved Election Day voting to the new Community Center located at 520 McKinley St.
That is for Election Day voting, only. In person absentee voting, (early voting) still takes place at city hall October 22 thru November 1, from 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM.
This week the Board of Public Works took our next step in dealing with the problem of flooding. As reported in the Waupun Pioneer News on Thursday, the BPW had a lengthy discussion regarding the increased flooding issues. This discussion included reasons for the flooding. We know heavy rain events are occurring more often, and we’re getting more rain in shorter periods of time than in years past. We also know many farmers are tiling fields, and that the city now has more water pouring into our drainage system faster than we’re able to absorb it.
The board approved $24,750 for an engineering study to help determine ways to combat flooding, basically the best places for retention pods and larger sewer pipes.
I plan on meeting with our state legislators to discuss stormwater retention ponds that should be built in the county in areas where field tiling has been installed.
We also have to figure out why the sanitary sewer is filling up during rain events and backing up into basements. In theory, the sanitary sewer shouldn’t have that much storm water in it. Waupun Utilities is investigating this issue.
Waupun is being proactive as we try combating the flooding. We’ve deepened and widened the Harris Creek, we continue to build retention ponds, we’ve installed swales along bordering farm fields and we inspect homes for cross connection of sump pumps. We’ve looked into larger ponds (helps a little), removing the dam (doesn’t help) and we’re even looking at removing the gravel road that circles the End of the Trail to allow for easier spillover of the river. (Helps a little).
For a more in-depth look, please check this out https://waupunpioneer.com/2024/10/10/board-of-public-works-conducting-stormwater-engineering-study-for-community-flooding/.
We’re still raising money to keep Rosie the Riveter here in Waupun. If you’d like to help, and we’re close, please let me know.
Finally, hopefully within a week or so, we’ll have the dam fixed.
Thank you, Waupun. And enjoy the weekend.
Mayor Rohn
